Finding media

Browse mode allows you to browse the media files on drives and devices connected to your computer.

When you double-click a file in Browse view, the file is loaded in View mode, where you can preview it or edit it.

For more information, see "Playing media," "Marking in and out points for playback," "Applying color correction," or "Viewing and editing metadata."

Catalyst Browse is designed to support clips from Sony cameras and devices. For expanded device support, please consider Catalyst Prepare.

The Media Browser is not available when Catalyst Browse is started in view-only mode.

An on a thumbnail indicates that an error was detected with the clip.

A indicates a clip from an Optical Disc Archive volume.

An on a thumbnail indicates a clip that contains LUT metadata. For more information, see "Editing Color Adjustments controls."

An on a thumbnail indicates a clip that contains lens breathing metadata. For more information, see "Lens breathing compensation."

An on a thumbnail indicates a clip that contains stabilization metadata. For more information, see "Stabilizing clips."

The stabilize icon is not displayed for clips on FTP devices, XDCAM Station volumes via CIFS, XDCAM decks, XDCAM Drive units, or Optical Disc Archive volumes.

An on a thumbnail indicates a rotated clip. For more information, see "Working with rotated clips."

An on a thumbnail indicates that a clip spans multiple discs on an Optical Disc Archive volume. When you play a clip that spans discs, an indicator is displayed in the timeline to identify the point where the clip switches discs:

An on a thumbnail indicates a clip that spans multiple files due to file-size limitations but is displayed in Catalyst Browse as a single virtual clip. Spanned XDCAM EX clips can be transcoded directly, but AVCHD clips must be copied first.

To transcode spanned AVCHD clips, first copy them to a new folder. After the copy is complete, the indicator is removed, and the clips are combined in a new clip that you can transcode. For more information, see "Saving and sharing clips" or "Saving and sharing clips."

An on a thumbnail indicates a proxy clip that does not have a full-resolution clip available.

Choosing a folder

Click the Browse button at the top of the Catalyst Browse window to view the Media Browser.

Use the Media Browser to browse your computer for video files.

The top of the Media Browser will display the current folder and its parent folder. You can click the link to the parent folder to navigate up one level.

To navigate quickly, click the File button at the bottom of the Media Browser and choose Go to location.

To add the current folder to the Favorite Folders list in the Places pane, click the File button at the bottom of the Media Browser and choose Add to Favorites.

To remove a folder from the Favorite Folders list, select the folder in the Places pane and click the X button:


Connect to a device via FTP

You can use Catalyst Browse to work with clips on a remote server using FTP/FTPS in much the same way you work with clips on your computer's drives.

For more information, see " Working with FTP devices."

Displaying files in a list or thumbnail mode

Click the button to toggle thumbnail and list mode.

In thumbnail mode (), the Media Browser displays thumbnail images and file names.

In list mode (), you can click the headings in the Media Browser to sort the file list by various attributes. Click the heading again to sort in ascending or descending order. An arrow is displayed to indicate the current sorting method:

Searching for clips

  1. Select the folder you want to search. Subfolders will be included in your search.

  2. Click the Search button to display the Search bar at the top of the Media Browser.

  3. Type your search terms in the Search bar. The Media Browser displays all clips in the selected folder that contain your search terms in the file name or Summary metadata.

    Select a clip and click Go to folder to navigate to a clip's folder.

    Click the Close button to close the Search bar and clear the search results from the Media Browser.

    Select a different folder to clear your search terms and start a new search in the selected folder.

Filtering clips

You can use the Filter button to filter the contents of the Media Browser. You can filter files by file type, file format, date created, or flag metadata.

  1. Select the folder you want to view.

  2. Click the Filter button to display the Filter By menu at the top of the Media Browser.

  3. Enable the Filter switch at the top of the menu to enable the filter.

  4. Select the check box for each filter you want to apply.

    For the Type, Format, and Flag filters, you can choose is or is not to indicate whether files that match the filter should be included or excluded from the Media Browser.

    For the Date Created filter, you can choose to display files created on or before a date, on or after a date, or between two dates.

    To turn off the filter and display all files in the Media Browser, turn off the Filter switch at the top of the menu.

    Using filtering, you can quickly find and select clips that you had tagged OK during shooting and copy or transcode the filtered clips. For more information, see "Transcoding clips" or "Copying clips."

Selecting files

  • Click a file to select it.

  • Hold Shift and click the first and last file you want to select to select a range of files.

  • Hold Ctrl (Windows) or Command (macOS) to select multiple files.

    Click the Select button to select multiple files without using keyboard modifiers.

Copying files

Copying media allows you to import clips from cameras or decks to your computer, to another camera or deck, or to a centralized storage device. For more information, see "Saving and sharing clips".

Renaming files

  1. Select a file.

  2. Click the File button at the bottom of the Media Browser, choose Rename, and type a new name in the edit box.

You can also press F2 to rename the selected file.

Renaming is not available for proxy clips or clips that are part of an AVCHD folder structure.

Renaming is not available when Catalyst Browse is started in view-only mode.

Deleting files

  1. Select a file.

  2. Click the File button at the bottom of the Media Browser and choose Delete.

    Deleting files from an AVCHD folder structure is not supported.

    Deleting is not available when Catalyst Browse is started in view-only mode.

Showing source clips

  1. Select a file.

  2. Click the File button at the bottom of the Media Browser and choose Show in Finder (macOS) or Show in Explorer (Windows) to view the source clip in its containing folder.

Managing SxS and Professional Disc volumes

If you need to format an SxS card, please use the Memory Media Utility.

If you need to format or finalize an XDCAM Professional Disc volume, please use the XDCAM Drive Software.